Free Republic

How Australia Is Networking Its Forces By David A. Fulghum Canberra and Washington Australia is integrating three new operational elements into its advanced, network-centric military—a squadron of Wedge­tail aircraft, the first two squadrons of F/A-18F Super Hornets and the Vigi­lare theater surveillance integration system. All are designed as the backbone of a small, highly responsive force. The country is refashioning its armed services as the core of an international force—integrating a variety of foreign participants—that will be capable of responding to military emergencies or natural disasters. However, this cutting-edge organization was envisioned somewhat differently only five years ago. The Boeing...

The Defense Department's Office of Force Transformation has produced a new publication explaining the importance of network-centric warfare. According to DoD officials, the term broadly describes the combination of emerging tactics, techniques and procedures that a networked force can use to create a decisive warfighting advantage. It's one of DoD's major initiatives to transform the military. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that "U.S. forces must leverage information technology and innovative network-centric concepts of operations to develop increasingly capable joint forces. New information and communications technologies hold promise for networking highly distributed, joint and multinational forces." Among its benefits,...

The Defense Department has made progress in implementing network-centric warfare and improving war-fighters' communications capabilities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a top Pentagon technology expert said on Tuesday. "Our efforts to integrate joint information networks and enable precision targeting are helping to win wars, to save lives of American and coalition service members, and to save the lives of countless innocent non-combatants," Lt. Gen. Harry Raduege, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said during a homeland security conference sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.Raduege noted that DISA has upgraded the software supporting the...